This invention relates to wicketing apparatus and particularly to an adjustable wicket post unit for accurate assembly of product.
In forming of bags and like individual articles of plastic and the like flexible materials, a stream of the members are formed and then assembled in stacked relation for subsequent storage, shipment, or other processing. The members or articles may be formed with appropriate spaced holes and processed through a wicketing apparatus in which the members are rotated into stacked relation onto a wicket indexing conveyor unit. The indexing conveyor unit generally includes pairs of spaced locating members such as vertically upstanding wicket posts or pins, spaced in accordance with the spacement of the holes in each article. The articles are dropped onto the posts to align the bags into a neat stack of superimposed articles. For continuous mass production, the wicket unit includes an integrated indexing conveyor chain with a series of the dual-post sets secured thereto. Upon forming of a desired stack, the conveyor is stepped to move a finished stack from the alignment with the wicket wheel and repositions a set of posts in appropriate alignment with the incoming stream of articles. The article forming line may, of course, be constructed to form articles of different shapes and configurations, and particularly with different spaced stacking openings or holes in the articles. The wicket unit is therefore preferably provided with an adjustable post support system, or with replacement post units for accommodating different stacking hole spacement which are encountered in various article designs. The spacement generally varies in known and equal integral distances.
A standard available system for pin or post adjustment includes a separate mounting plate secured at each station of an endless chain conveyor or other conveying unit. The plate includes a plurality of longitudinally spaced threaded openings. The post unit for each station plate includes a base plate and a wicket post which may be integrally formed with the base plate. Each base plate includes a pair of spaced openings or apertures for alignment with adjacent threaded openings. A bolt member is provided for fixedly clamping of the base and thereby the posts to appropriate threaded openings. By attachment to selected threaded openings, the desired spacing of the posts is provided. Generally, for ease of assembly and the like, certain tolerances, of course, are inherent in the construction of the threaded opening as well as the interconnecting plate or mounting base openings and the clamping bolt. Although the system provides an adjustable post support, it has been found that the accuracy of post alignment is less than that desired and is highly dependent upon the careful attention and adjustment of the base members to provide a desired pin location.
Other systems permitting adjustment have been suggested. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,233 which issued Feb. 24, 1981 discloses a system having a base plate with an integral post and mounted to a station or index plate by a top clamp bar bolted to the station plate, with a slot and projection coupling permitting transverse and longitudinal location of the individual pins to the station or index plates prior to tightening of the clamp bar. This provides for essentially infinite adjustment of the pin location. However, the system would require careful attention of the operator making the adjustments. The patent discloses a special gauge device for use in locating of the posts. In the absence of such a gauge, or failure of the set-up personnel to use the gauge, the post setting will be highly dependent on the skill and care of the operator.
Generally, the task of setting the post sets on the commercial indexing conveyors has been considered a time consuming and costly, as well as a rather tiresome task, thus tending to require a motivated operator to provide the desired results. Although the prior art has suggested various adjustable systems for wicketing apparatus, there remains a need for a reliable, low-cost and rapidly positioned system for adjusting a wicketing apparatus to various applications.